Due
to manufacturing problems, the United States Garbage Pail Kids
All-New Series 7 was not released when scheduled. Most of the
All-New Series 7 products were available in January 2008, which was
about a month later than when they were originally scheduled to be
released. This delay put the release of the All-New Series 7
over a year after the release of the All-New Series 6. Topps
had promotions for the All-New Series 7, but even with their
advertisements for the release it did not appear to make a
significant difference in appealing to new collectors. Topps
decided to leave out the bubble gum for most of the packs and instead
doubled the amount of cards and doubled the price per pack.
These 10-card "mega packs" were priced at $1.99, which made
them the first Garbage Pail Kids packs to cost over $1.00.
While the amount of cards and the cost per pack had both gone up, it
appeared to be an uneven trade-off, and the All-New Series 7 was one
of the most expensive All-New Series releases to collect so far.
Topps produced "regular" (non-mega pack) All-New Series 7
boxes with unpriced packs. These boxes were very uncommon.
The packs from these boxes each contained 5 cards and a stick of
bubble gum. There were no insert cards in the 5-card
packs. The All-New Series 7 featured an expanded base card set
of 110, an activity card set of 10, a loco motion card set of 5, a
pop-up card set of 10, and a puzzle card set of 10. The insert
cards were often found with minor damage. The activity cards
were over-punched, and pieces of the activity cards were sometimes
missing. The loco motion cards were poorly made, and all of
them were bent, which also bent the other cards in the packs they
were in. There were severe problems with the distribution of
the bonus boxes, and the bonus cards were not inserted into the
correct bonus boxes, which made it nearly impossible to find bonus
card B2 Carl Wreck. Some of the card front artwork was done
digitally, which meant there were no paintings for Garbage Pail Kids
art enthisiasts to buy. The overall artwork style for the
release was very ununiform. Excluding the bonus boxes, the
sales from the release did not appear to be strong. Many
collectors were turned-off from the product because of the
manufacturing problems, which is why the most important thing Topps
must improve with the All-New Series is the manufacturing quality and
consistency.

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There
were five different items found in the United States Garbage Pail
Kids All-New Series 7 packs, and there was one additional item that
could only be found in the bonus boxes and blister packs.
Topps titled
the items for the series differently than what I will refer to
them as. The Stickers will be referred to as Cards, the
Action Punch-Outs / Action Punch Outs will be referred to as Activity
Cards, the Motion Cards will be referred to as Loco Motion Cards,
the Pop-Ups will be referred to as Pop-Up Cards, the Jig-Saw Puzzles
will be referred to as Puzzle Cards, and the Bonus Stickers will be
referred to as Bonus Cards. I used these titles to help clarify
which items I am discussing. The cards and bonus cards are
actually stickers on card backing, so I decided to continue on with
the same format I had been using on the website and refer to them as
cards.

I provided samples of what the cards
and items of the series look like. The first and last cards,
activity cards, loco motion cards, pop-up cards, and puzzle cards
are shown above. There also are image overviews of all of the
cards, activity cards, loco motion cards, pop-up cards, and puzzle
cards. The card checklist, activity card/loco motion
card/pop-up card/puzzle card checklist, the front and back of the six
bonus cards, sample activity card back, sample loco motion card back,
sample pop-up card back, sample puzzle card back, and the front and
back of the promo card can also be seen above. Larger images of
both sides of the activity cards can be see under the
Activity Cards section on page
2. The purpose of the samples and image overviews is to
give you a preview of the series. Higher quality images of
these items will not be provided on this website or by request.

There were a total of 116 different
characters (61 different paintings) in the United States Garbage Pail
Kids All-New Series 7.
Tom Bunk
created 3 new paintings for the series,
Layron DeJarnette
created 4 new paintings for the series,
Luis Diaz
created 4 new paintings for the series,
Brent Engstrom
created 25 new paintings for the series,
Dave Gross created 3 new paintings for the series,
Fred Harper
created 4 new paintings for the series,
Ray Lago
created 2 new paintings for the series,
and John Pound created 15 new paintings for the series.
Richard Clark
was the only new artist to work on Garbage Pail Kids paintings,
and he created 1 new painting for the series. The
characters on the activity cards were from previous Garbage Pail Kids
series, but the characters were redesigned to match the activity shown
on the activity cards.
Jay Lynch
and Neil Camera were the artists who created the artwork for the
activity cards. The artwork for the loco motion cards (excluding the
animations), pop-up cards, and puzzle cards was reused from previous
series.

While the Garbage Pail Kids style guide
by John Pound had been available for the artists to use, the artwork
style for the All-New Series 7 characters was still very
inconsistent. All of the All-New Series 7 paintings created by
Brent Engstrom and Layron DeJarnette were done digitally, and they
did not fit in as well with the other paintings from the
series. The painting for 44a Breakin' Brandon / 44b Buster
Move was originally created to promote the Jamie Kennedy movie
Kickin' It Old Skool, and the promotional material for the movie that
uses the Garbage Pail Kids artwork is shown under the
All-New Series 6
Media and Publications section on page 3. Unfortunately,
the artwork created for the movie does not match the Garbage Pail Kids
artwork style.

The print version of the All-New Series
7 was similar in quality to that of the All-New Series 6, which was
fairly good. The colors for the print version were slightly
duller and darker than the original paintings.

There were first names used for new
characters in the All-New Series 1,
All-New Series 2,
All-New Series 3,
All-New Series 4,
All-New Series 5, and
All-New Series 6 that
were also used in the All-New Series 7. Out
of the 80 different new character names for the All-New Series 1, 94
different new character names for the All-New Series 2, 107 different
new character names for the All-New Series 3, 96 different new character
names for the All-New Series 4, 85 different new character names
for the All-New Series 5, 86 different new character names for the
All-New Series 6, and 116 different new character names for the All-New
Series 7; there were 65 repeated first names for the All-New
Series 7. There were 7 All-New Series 7 character names that were
identical to character names from previous series.

§The
names "Flamin' Damon", "Gil Grill", "Stormy
Heather", "Manuel Labor", "On The Mark",
"Molly Pop", and "Ol' Faith Phil"
were used in previous series and in the All-New Series 7.*The name Phil was used twice in the
All-New Series 7.

There was one printing of the United
States Garbage Pail Kids All-New Series 7. There were no
variations for the printing. Some of the cards could be found
with tiny print spots, but these were inconsistent and not
considered variations. The bonus cards did not come in the
regular boxes, and you would have to purchase the bonus boxes and
blister packs in order to obtain them. Like the bonus boxes
from the the All-New Series 6, the All-New Series 7 had the bonus
cards sealed inside of one of the packs instead of sealed separately
inside of a clear, cellophane wrapper. Unfortunately,
there sometimes were bonus boxes that did not contain any bonus cards
even though they were supposed to at least contain one. I
discuss more details about the packs, bonus cards/boxes, and blister
packs under the Packaging
and Contents section on page 2.

One of the most significant problems
with the All-New Series 7 was the distribution of the bonus
cards. In the previous All-New Series, each bonus card
product would consistently contain the same bonus card, but that was
not the case for this release. Collectors were able to obtain
all of the bonus cards from the bonus boxes and blister packs except
for bonus card B2 Carl Wreck, which was supposed to be found in the
Target bonus boxes. But, the Target bonus boxes usually ended
up containing B1 Leaky Leslie or B6 George Clowny. Collectors
were extremely frustrated with this problem, and they had tried
writing Topps in order to obtain the B2 Carl Wreck bonus card.
Topps did supply some collectors with the card, but Topps also
rejected many of the requests because the collectors did not supply
the correct items, collectors wrote the wrong address, or Topps ran
out of the B2 Carl Wreck bonus cards. Collectors had written
Topps Consumer Relations (Duryea, PA), the address on the back of the
All-New Series 7 wrappers, and Topps headquarters (New York,
NY). In order to obtain the bonus card, collectors were
supposed to send in a copy of their receipt, all of the pack wrappers
from the bonus box, the UPC code from the bonus box, and a letter
stating that the B2 Carl Wreck bonus card was not included.
Various response letters from Topps can be seen above. Only a
small portion of collectors were able to obtain the bonus card this
way. Several months after the All-New Series 7 was released and
after many complaints, Topps decided to print up more of the
B2 Card Wreck bonus cards and provide them for free to
collectors. In order for collectors to obtain the bonus card
for free, they had to print out a form that was available on the
Topps website. The B2 Carl Wreck bonus cards from the second
print were slightly darker than the B2 Carl Wreck bonus cards from
the first print. A comparison image of the first print and the
second print B2 Carl Wreck bonus cards can be seen under the
Errors and Card Details section
on page 2.

There were two different checklists for
the series. There was a card checklist and an activity
card/loco motion card/pop-up card/puzzle card checklist. The
card checklist was used for 3 of the card backs, and the activity
card/loco motion card/pop-up card/puzzle card checklist was used for
3 of the card backs. The card checklist numbering is
left-justified and has lower-case a's and b's. The cards are
numbered 1a to 55a and 1b to 55b, which can be very confusing to new
collectors because the numbers 1a to 40a and 1b to 40b are the same
as the original Series 1, All-New Series 1, All-New Series 2, All-New
Series 3, All-New Series 4, All-New Series 5, and All-New
Series 6. Card 18b Dung Beetle Bailey is incorrectly listed as
18b Dung Beetle Baily on the card checklist, and card 26b Windy
Wendell is incorrectly listed as 26b Windy Wendel on the card
checklist. The activity card/loco motion
card/pop-up card/puzzle card checklist numbering was also
left-justified. The activity cards are incorrectly numbered
a1 to a10 on the activity card/loco motion card/pop-up card/puzzle
card checklist. Activity card 8 Booger Ken (8 Pickin' An'
Grinnin') is incorrectly listed as 8 Booker Ken on the activity
card/loco motion card/pop-up card/puzzle card checklist, and activity
card 9 Snakes In Dwayne (9 Let 'Em Eat Snake!) is incorrectly listed
as 9 Snake In Dwayne on the activity card/loco motion card/pop-up
card/puzzle card checklist. The die-cuts on the cards were all
the same shape. Just like the All-New Series 6 checklists, the
All-New Series 7 checklists had a light blue border and title
font. The cards were not printed with asterisks on them like
the original Garbage Pail Kids series. The cards had a glossy
coating on them, which is supposed to help protect them from getting
damaged. The card finish, coloring, and thickness was
consistent throughout the printing.

Despite lack of collector interest in
the activity cards from the All-New Series 6, Topps created an
activity card set for the All-New Series 7. The activity cards
were designed so that kids could actually play with their Garbage
Pail Kids cards, but the cards would have to be broken apart in order
to play with them. The activity cards for the All-New Series 7
were very fragile and were often over-punched. Many times
pieces of the activity cards were missing or already detatched.
The activity cards were numbered from 1 to 10. More information
about the activity cards can be found on the
Activity Cards section on page 2.

Topps created the first ever Garbage
Pail Kids loco motion cards for the All-New Series 7. The loco
motion cards were lenticular cards that had animations of original
series characters. Unfortunately, there was one animation cell
that was off by approximately a sixteenth of an inch on each of the
loco motion cards. The plastic portion of the loco motion cards
was warped/curved, and it not only curved all of the loco motion cards
but it also curved the other cards in the packs with the loco motion
cards. It was not uncommon to find loco motion cards with globs
of glue showing underneath the plastic or the ink near the edge of
the card backing flaked off. The loco motion cards were
numbered from 1 to 5. The artwork used for the 5 loco motion
cards came from the following series:

Topps created their second Garbage
Pail Kids pop-up card set for the All-New Series 7. The first
pop-up card set was in the All-New Series 3. Collectors did
not enjoy the pop-up card set from the All-New Series 3, so it was
unusual for Topps to create another pop-up card set. Topps
used the same design for the pop-up cards for the All-New Series 7
as they used for the All-New Series 3, but they forgot to update
the copyright date on the pop-up cards, which is why they have a 2004
copyright date on them. The pop-up cards were numbered from
1 to 10, and it is not difficult to confuse the pop-up cards from
the All-New Series 7 with the pop-up cards from the All-New Series
3. Pop-up card 4 Tom Tongue incorrectly has the word Tongue
in large lettering instead of the name Tom. The artwork used
for the 10 pop-up cards came from the following series:

Topps created the first ever Garbage
Pail Kids puzzle cards for the All-New Series 7. The puzzle
cards were not much different than the base cards except that they
had a jigsaw puzzle punched into the center of each of the
cards. The puzzle cards were numbered from 1 to 10. The
artwork used for the 10 puzzle cards came from the following
series:

There were six bonus cards, and they
were numbered B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, and B6. There were no
"a" or "b" versions of the bonus cards.
Besides the numbering and bonus card information on the backs, the
bonus cards looked and felt the same as the regular cards.
The bonus cards had die-cuts and an extremely glossy coating just
like the regular cards. However, the bonus cards are more
valuable than the regular cards because they were much more
difficult to obtain and were only available in the bonus boxes
and blister packs. Topps restarted the numbering sequence
back at B1, and because of that there were now two groups of
bonus cards going from B1 to B6. The card numbers on the back
of the bonus cards for the All-New Series 2 through All-New Series 6
were white, and the card numbers on the back of the bonus cards for
the All-New Series 7 were black. Bonus cards B2 Carl Wreck and
B5 Tongue Tied Tara do not have "Peel Here" arrows printed
on them.

Topps created promo card P1 Dough Boyd
for the All-New Series 7 (see image above), and it was handed out at
the San Diego Comic-Con International at the Topps booth back in July
of 2007. The San Diego Comic-Con International is a huge
convention that has products from hundreds of manufacturers.
This was the fourth promo card that Topps had produced for Garbage
Pail Kids. The promo card was the same thickness and glossiness
as the regular cards. There was no "Peel Here" arrow
printed on the promo card, and the card was not die-cut because there
was no sticker portion (i.e., it was not a sticker on card
backing). The back of the promo card mentioned that the All-New
Series 7 would be out in Fall of 2007, and it also had the URL to Topps'
official Garbage Pail Kids website (the website is no longer up)printed on it.

Puzzle
Backs

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

There
were 8 different puzzles for the United States Garbage Pail Kids All-New
Series 7. The other cards had Identification Card backs, Wanted
Poster backs, or checklist backs.

Instead of alphabetically numbering the
puzzles (e.g. Puzzle A, Puzzle B, Puzzle C, etc.), colors were
used. The puzzles were of characters from the series, but they
did not have the name ovals printed on them. The blue border
puzzle was of 5a Space Chase / 5b Cosmic Ray, the green border puzzle
was of 8a Big Top Tony / 8b Ol' Faith Phil, the light blue border
puzzle was of 10a Spartan Martin / 10b Warrior Warren, the orange
border puzzle was of 2a Lindsay Lo-Life / 2b Snotty Sara, the pink
border puzzle was of 19a Ice Cole / 19b Stuck Buck, the purple border
puzzle was of 3a Offense Spence / 3b Rebound Roy, the red border
puzzle was of 1a Ty Dee Knot / 1b Ty Dee Knot, and the yellow border
puzzle was of 14a Coral Carson / 14b Cora Reef. Each puzzle, as
shown above, was comprised of 9 puzzle pieces (3 pieces across and 3
pieces down). All eight of the puzzles were turned on the
vertical.

Each completed puzzle picture (one for
each color) was used for 1 card back. The completed puzzle pictures
are shown above. I also created a diagram showing where each of
the 9 puzzle pieces should go, and I made a list that shows the card
numbers that go with each of the puzzles.